Ex-CEO Of Bakkt Kelly Loeffler Takes A Seat In The CFTC Committee

Ex-CEO of Bakkt, Kelly Loeffler, has recently been placed in the US Senate for the state of Georgia and now she is also assigned to serve on the CFTC Senate Agriculture Committee. Her husband is also the CEO of the Intercontinental Exchange and this raises concerns about a potential conflict of interest so let’s dig deeper into the latest cryptocurrency news.

Kelly Loeffler, the EX-CEO of Bakkt, recently became one of the most influential people within the crypto space since she was the chief executive of the bitcoin futures trading platform that was launched by ICE- the owner of the New York Stock Exchange. The regulated nature of Bakkt, as well as the institutional approach, raised a lot of hopes that it will serve as a bridge between the larger investors and Bitcoin since its volume is continuously increasing which could indicate that the institutional interest is on the rise.

As per the recent reports, Loeffler recently took a seat in the US Senate for the state of Georgia. The Wall Street Journal reported that she will also serve now on the Senate Agriculture Committee with the Commodity and Futures Trading Commission. The Committee is responsible for defining the nominations of the CFTC and remit for chairmen and commissioners. The news brought up a few concerns that this could cause a conflict of interest and this stems from the fact that her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher is the founder, chairman, and CEO of ICE.

Loeffler’s appointment to the committee raise a few eyebrows as well but she was quick to dismiss them by saying that she had ‘’worked hard to comply with both the letter and the spirit of the Senate’s ethics rules and will continue to do so every day.’’ She added:

 “I will recuse myself if needed on a case by case basis.”

Loeffler stepped down from the CEO position as soon as she was assigned with the Senate seat and on her place now sits Mike Blandina who has also been a leader in PayPal, Google, and other tech giant companies. Bakkt has been granted approval from the CFTC to offer the crypto-settled Bitcoin futures contract as well.